Football season is back. Being as though high school athletes make up the majority of my clientele high school football makes up the majority of games that I watch/attend. Two reasons why I watch more high school football games than college or professional: 1. I know most of the athletes on the field personally 2. There is something about the heart and passion at this level that gets lost somewhere down the line as the athletes get older and progress more towards a professional level. High school sports in general, not just football, have a certain feel to them that is hard to bottle up and explain.
As someone like me who is in a position to be heavily involved in high school sports you learn a lot about the technical aspects of the game, the culture, and psychology. Before I go any further I would like to make mention that my football career ended in 6th grade (unless you want to count a Turkey Bowl here and there…). After 6th grade I only played baseball, a decision that I regret to this day (early sports specialization is terrible…that’s a blog post for another time). That being said I want to add a disclaimer:
I am not, nor claiming to be, an expert in the technical concepts of football. This includes but is not limited to play design, coverages, schematics, etc…I am fully aware that football coaches have a much better understanding of the X’s and O’s than I do.
However, as a strength and conditioning coach who has trained countless football players and have helped them succeed at high levels I do feel as though I am completely justified and have a seat at the table to discuss what I am going to get into below. Now…with the disclaimer out of the way let’s get down to business and talk about why you can’t win a high school football game (look I get it…someone has to ultimately lose a game I get that…but it doesn’t have to be your team that churns out losing season after losing season, let that be the school down the road!)
I’m going to try to keep this is a simple as possible (not because you are dumb, but because this concept is honestly simple). The key to building a winning high school football program *drum roll*… BECOME SAVAGELY GOOD AT THE SIMPLE THINGS.
Lets break this down: What does becoming savagely good at the simple things actually entail? Lets start in the weight room, the area I’m able to provide the most insight. A stronger, faster, tougher, and more disciplined team on the field Friday night 9 times out of 10 will beat their opponent at this level of football. It is very hard to win a game against a team in high school football when a team is physically and athletically more developed than you. Take a look at the best programs in the state of Ohio. Now look at their strength and conditioning program. It’s usually ran by a high level, qualified strength and conditioning coach. All the way from D1 to D7 9 times out of 10 the most dominant programs have a well organized strength and conditioning program that is (and I can’t emphasize this part enough) RAN BY AN ACTUAL PROFESSIONAL. Unfortunately a lot of schools don’t seek out and hire a professional to head their training program. This means a football coach assumes the role of strength and conditioning coach which will ultimately leads to ineffective programming. And I’m not speaking out of terms when I say this. If I had a dollar for every time a high school football player came to train with me and I ask him what he does at the school and he responds with things such as power cleans and rounded back cat-shit deadlifts and then I ask him to do a bodyweight squat and he can’t even complete one solid rep of an unloaded movement pattern I could be very rich. Remember what I said in the disclaimer above: I don’t know about the X’s and O’s of football as well as football coaches… That’s self awareness. I would be an awful head football coach because that’s not my area of expertise. So why is it not the other way around too? Football coaches have enough to worry about to strategize for their team to win on Friday night and they shouldn’t have to worry about progressive overload and fundamental movement patterns to improve their athletes strength, speed, and durability. Sadly the weight room, which should elevate each athletes game, will actually put some schools at a disadvantage due to improper programming and coaching leading to injuries and decreased performance.
I don’t like to just point out problems without offering solutions. So, what is the solution here in regard to the weight room?
BECOME SAVAGELY GOOD AT THE SIMPLE THINGS. How do you start this? Learn and master foundational movement patterns: squat, hinge, push, pull, carry. Then progress these patterns and continue to master them. Become extremely strong and efficient at these. Improve linear speed and reactive multi-directional speed. The concept of improving these foundational movement patterns and linear/reactive speed is simple! But the methodology to implement and coach this is where it takes a true professional to not F it up.
Remember…a team that is faster, stronger, more athletic, and I’ll add more durable, will 9 times out of 10 beat their opponent.
Weight room = wins. Piss poor weight room coaching/programming = injuries, confusion, and poor performance.
Last thing I want to touch on does involve the X’s and O’s of football (remember the disclaimer please) however it is directly impacted by the weight room so again…I feel like I have justification with speaking on this.
Don’t try to be something you’re not. Meaning…if your QB who can’t run a sub 5 second 40 is trying to model his game after Lamar Jackson or your offensive coordinator wants to run a pass heavy offensive attack like some professional teams yet the QB can’t hit the broad side of a barn and has the arm strength of a wet noodle you may be in over your head. It’s hard not to watch the exciting plays that happen on Sunday and not want to recreate that with your team, but it’s unrealistic to think your small county high school football team can run the same offense as the Kansas City Chiefs. BECOME SAVAGELY GOOD AT THE SIMPLE THINGS. Practice discipline and not missing assignments before trying to run an up tempo offense. Overwhelm your opponent with a strong and fast offense and defense.
If you want to read about a real world example of every single thing I just talked about I encourage you to read about the London High School football team. I will attach the link to the article in this blog post: https://www.jimwendler.com/blogs/jimwendler-com/london-red-raider-football-team-original-krypteia
I will also attach a video of Jim Wendler speaking on his experience with London High School football team: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfQtI7W_vYg
I really encourage anyone who may find this topic even the slightest bit interesting to visit these links as they echo the exact concept I am writing about to you today. I’ll provide a short snippet below to give you a small sample of what an awesome job Coach Wendler has done at this school
“Our off-season was spectacular. High school sports is voluntary and the kid's commitment and turnout was almost 100%. We took one week off after the season and the kids showed up, ready to work. We are now 7-0; if you are a fan of old school football, you will love London High School. We run for nearly 500 or more yards per game and pride ourselves on being physical. We have outscored our opponents 380-61.”
In summary:
If you want to build a successful football program and start a tradition of winning you must BECOME SAVAGELY GOOD AT THE SIMPLE THINGS
Before you try to implement Olympic lifts, velocity based training, and “Navy Seal workouts” into your off season training BECOME SAVAGELY GOOD AT THE SIMPLE THINGS aka the foundational movement patterns, linear speed, and reactive speed
Realize the strengths and weaknesses of your team and build your game plan around that, not around what you see on Sundays. Overwhelm your opposition with the tenacity, strength, and speed you build in the weight room in the off season.
It pays to outsource your strength and conditioning/physical preparation training to a qualified professional. This allows the football coaches more time to do what they do best which is focusing on football. Success leaves clues. Look to any historically successful football program in the state and they all have a structured strength and conditioning program built around the basics and led by professionals.
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